1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gas and oil wells and more particularly to control systems for maximizing the efficiency and output particularly of a group of gas wells with respect to a single centralized control and collection arrangement.
2. Prior Art
Natural gas is a relatively inexpensive, clean-burning fuel which has replaced coal and oil in many areas for the generation of electric power. It has become one of the basic fuel commodities in the United States. However, the prices of oil and gas has increased dramatically over the past few years. Industry has responded by drilling many more wells. Often, such wells are drilled in a particular geographic pattern so as to supply a centralized production facility served by a number of wells, which is far more economical than having each well with its own production facility.
It is thus an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the current production and collection of gas from a plurality of wells into a centralized separation, collection and measurement facility.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a production facility arrangement which optimizes output of gas and oil from each well in a collection of wells in a production facility.
It is also an object of the, present invention to provide a means by which production “throughput” of the centralized facility may be maximized.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a means of controlling the production of a number of wells as well as monitoring the production from any particular well within that production facility, so as to optimize production of the highest producing wells and giving the lesser producing wells time to re-pressurize for optimum production therefrom.
It is a further object of the present invention to utilize a wireless plunger arrangement to signal respective individual well controllers about particular well conditions for “real-time” determination of optimum output by the system's central controller.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a plunger location arrangement for tracking plunger location and “well-bottom timing” of the plungers in the various wells for optimizing well output and for insuring safety in plunger speed control.